Planners, designers and policy makers tasked with creating safe urban environments need to consider how children can offer input into local challenges. Hearing from children helps to clarify priorities and contribute to design solutions.
Engaging children, youth, and caregivers should be a common practice in any street transformation project. Cities that are designed with the needs of kids and caregivers in mind better serve everyone using them, from older adults to people with disabilities.
This event previews the Global Designing Cities Initiative’s upcoming publication, ‘How to Engage Kids in Street Design‘. A resource offering actionable tools, methodologies, and step-by-step guidance to facilitate meaningful engagement with kids in the street design process.
Francisca Benitez of the Global Designing Cities Initiative will present the publication and its strategies to tailor engagement approaches for different age groups and contexts, ensuring that even the youngest children, through their parents and caregivers, have their priorities acknowledged. Developing effective participatory practice is essential to delivering supportive and nurturing urban spaces where young people and caregivers can thrive.
Francisca Benitez will be joined for a discussion by Silvia Amoros from Waltham Forest Council, (an Urban95 Academy alumnus) and Joana Dabai, Co-founder of the advocacy group Catalytic Action to discuss the theory and practice of creating an inclusive and participatory environment by incorporating kids’ voices and ideas into the street design decision-making process.